For thinking that my colleagues are sexist?

[Beaverfeaver]

I work in an office of about 15 people. I am female and young at 26.

Most of my colleagues are male 40+.

I do not work in an administrative role. I am sales and manage a team of 3.

We have an admin/receptionist who does such things as the post, arranging couriers etc...

Anyway, when she is away, as soon as something 'adminy' needs to be doing, the males of the office always come to me. I am starting to get a bit peeved by it and actually have snapped once or twice and asked them outright if thy ask me because I am female.
The response is always a joky one. Which is fine as I don't want things to get hostile in a small open plan office where most of the time we all love each other dearly.
Just why do they not ask the more junior males of the office?

I used to think it was because I was nice and friendly and happy to help. Turns out I am not as happy as I thought. Haha!

This is still a very common problem in many workplaces. I am sure most men are not deliberately doing it to keep women down or lessen their chances of promotion. But that is actually pretty irrelevant seeing that it has that effect.

If a workplace has a culture (however subconscious) where women are less likely to get to spend their time on career enhancing work than men at the same level of employment, then that workplace has a problem with equality quite regardless of what their intentions may be.

cory yes it's true

Also that generally women are not very good at saying no to these type of requests

So the men give all the shitwork to their female colleagues, freeing their time up to do stuff which gets noticed

There was a phenomenon of this in one of my last jobs - a PA who was a friend was always being given work by male managers who she was not PA to. I think fundamentally they felt that they were important and deserved to have an attractive young woman running around after them. The female managers (of whom there weren't many) didn't do this, they did their own admin.

lottie that was my thinking that even if she accepts and delegates she is still taking responsibility for work that is not hers

I agree with SardineQueen

Don't do it OP! It IS sexist, and YADNBU to be pissed off about it.

NinkyNonker

" If sales is so lowly Pendeen "

Is it?

YANBU. I have worked in the City for years and the default is FEMALE: SECRETARY. Have known one of my former Managing Directors to ask female Vice Presidents to do their printing etc if their assistant is not around, e.g. out of office hours. Watch someone from a different department come out of the lifts and onto the floor, they will head to the nearest female to ask where X sits or where X meeting room is, if this wasn't assumption that they were a secretary surely they would just ask the nearest person to the door (or the youngest/most junior grad or analyst type person)

Why do you have such a problem with admin pendeen? No-one except you seems to think it's 'lowly'.

I don't think the OP is 'pompous' not to want to do her job plus someone else's job. And I bet she is being lumbered with it because she's the woman.

I would turn it round on them, and try a bit of 'oh, I am not actually doing the photocopying but I'd love a coffee if you're making one/ I did need another set of pens if you're fetching/I could use some more printer paper' ... there was a fantastic woman where I worked who did this, always in a very deadpan voice. It worked well.

Btw, when I worked in admin I noticed that men did often ask other women in the office to do things that were clearly my job - as if we were interchangeable - and one bloke consistently called both me and the youngest woman in the lab by the same name. We were of different ethnicities and she was a research engineer while I was a temp admin assistant!

pendeen *"YABU.

Everyone does this, it's called office life.

" I do not work in an administrative role. I am sales and manage a team of 3 "

Don't be so pompous."

"Read what she has said, she has an inflated sense of her own importance, that is all." *

You gave the impression you think sales is lowly with these comments.

OP, YADNBU from a girl in an office of men.

Or instead of suggesting a junior to do it you could brightly
suggest a male peer.

It'll seem ridiculous asking John the Sales Manager to do their photocopying. Might bring it home to them just what's happening here.

The problem is not whether admin is lowly or sales is lowly: it is a fact that you are far less likely to be considered for promotion if you are not seen to achieve in the area in which you are actually employed.

Being good at admin won't earn you promotion as a sales manager and as long as you are employed as a sales manager you won't earn promotion as an administrator either.

And whether everybody cares about promotion or not is immaterial as long as there are people who do not get equal chances of it because of their sex/race/gender/whatever.

I happily do admin because it is written into my contract. My friend was right to object because it was not in hers and she was still expected to do more than her male colleagues who also did not have this as part of their contract.

No, I did not.

The OP's comments mentioned ".. something 'adminy' needs to be doing ."

If you misunderstood, then perhaps my remarks were ambiguous.

In a workplace everyone has a job to do. If someone is absent then their work (probably) still needs to be done.

Very few employers can afford to keep spare staff or hire a temp to cover therefore when the sort of work that anyone can do e.g. photocopying, answering a telephone, ( adminy ) then surely anyone should muck in and not stand on his or her dignity with comments such as: " I am sales and manage a team of 3 ".

That, to me, sounds pompous.

but pendeen why just ask op? presumably her colleagues are in sales and manage small teams. shouldn't everyone be treated the same?

YANBU. This sort of thing irritates me. As does the assumption that a woman in a meeting will serve the tea and coffee.

Pendeen why should the OP pick up the slack rather than the person (male) who needs the job doing?

But pendeen its not anyone that is being asked. Its always OP when the receptionist is off because OP is female. A male team leader would not be asked to do these tasks. It is sexist. If they all took turns to sort admin tasks when there was no reception cover then that would be fine.

OP, I would say I didn't have time and refer them to a junior member of staff/ suggest they ask the receptionist when she is next in.

YANBU - I see this a lot too. But the fact is Admin is NOT part of your role and this needs to be pointed out whenever they request it. I don't see it as your responsibility to organise a rota to sort this either - that should be organised by the receptionist (or her boss) before she takes holiday etc.

Sometimes these things are easier to deal with than others - e.g. I quite often get asked to take visitors back to reception - after someone elses meeting. I usually have an "urgent call" to make at that point. I have moved desks recently so that I am sat next to my boss, who said "Oh xxx (also female) used to bring me coffee". I smiled sweetly and replied I was jealous she had the time . One of my internal clients asked me to order sandwiches for HIS meeting. I wasn't nearly so polite.

'The problem is not whether admin is lowly or sales is lowly: it is a fact that you are far less likely to be considered for promotion if you are not seen to achieve in the area in which you are actually employed.'

This!

Incidentally, temp office work is very common and this office sounds big enough to employ a temp if needed. It could be HR hasn't noticed that need because someone like the OP always ends up covering.

Pendeen what is wrong with everyone doing their own admin while the admin person is away? Why should OP who is in a management role be expected to cover the admin duties?

It's rubbish.

I like SinicalSanta's idea of suggesting they give it a male manager

OP YANBU.

Pendeen - precisely - everyone should muck in - so those male colleagues should just do their photocopying themselves and not ask a non-admin-role colleague like the OP!!! How hard is that to understand?

This happened to me when I was first employed at an FE college (as a lecturer!) - male colleagues would ask me to fix the photocopier, assume I was a secretary/ PA, etc. Personally I don't have time for all the 'deadpan voice' or reverse-psych mindgames.

I'd just say, 'Sorry, is X the receptionist not here? Right, well, that's her job so if she's not, you'll just have to sort it out yourself, I'm doing y'. Not your job, not your problem.

Personally I'd raise it at a team meeting, that the recepnt's absences cause a staffing problem.......

This may have more to do with the OP's problem:

" .. most of the time we all love each other dearly .."

and:

".. I was nice and friendly and happy to help .."

i.e. "eager beaver, willing horse" etc.

Another factor could be that this is an office where most of the other people are in their 40s but OP is in her 20s, perhaps its age rather than sex?

To me it the problem is more complex that at first appearance and the explanation of sexism is too easy / simplistic hence my somewhat terse observations.

Like many people, I too have been in the 'younger, female, happy-to-help' position but I would not automatically cry "sexist".

I do, however, stand up for myself especially when on (building) sites! :)

On the other matter, possibly I am being a little unfair to OP (sorry if I am) but imagine if, rather than a comment on a website, someone actually said to you " I do not work in an administrative role. I am sales and manage a team of 3 " wouldn't that sound a teeny bit pompous?

YANBU. And yes, it happens a lot.

Of course you can chip in, as was suggested here. You send a letter for the male colleague, he brings you coffee, all fine. Tell them that next time.

No it doesn't sound pompous at all.

The OP is simply explaining that doing the admin for other people is not her job.

Seems strange to bend over backwards to come up with any explanation other than the obvious one, and slate the OP in the meantime when she has not posted anything that warrants it. Saying that she is pompous and should do the admin for the men even though it is not her job, and chastising her for being unwilling to do so, is a bizarre reaction to what she has posted.

Op I have the same situation but have found it helpful to offer to show the person how to complete the task competently themselves and there is never a reason to request further assistance. You can then use that requester as an example trainer whenever some else asks for help
I also delegate where I can but in this day and age everyone should understand all aspects of their jobs including the admin side. Perhaps some admin training would work to ensure that in future where there are absences these people are capable of continuing their jobs independently :-)

" Seems strange to bend over backwards to come up with any explanation other than the obvious one "

or, more sensibly, to not fall into the trap of rushing to find a single simplistic explanation.

simple =/= simplistic

Yes,.. this happens to me too - however, I don't care what their reasons are - I just tell tell them firmly 'NO' and to do it themselves !